Friday Poetry: Sir Edward Dyer

Happy Friday!

Happy weekend everyone! I sadly have quite a busy weekend work wise but hopefully I will manage some reading and get a chance to enjoy the sunshine.

My chosen poem for today is by Sir Edward Dyer (1543-1607) who was an Elizabethan poet.

A Modest Love

The lowest trees have tops, the ant her gall,
The fly her spleen, the little sparks their heat;
The slender hairs cast shadows, though but small,
And bees have stings, although they be not great;
Seas have their source, and so have shallows springs;
And love is love, in beggars as in kings. 

Where rivers smoothest run, deep are the fords;
The dial stirs, yet none perceives it move;
The firmest faith is in the fewest words;
The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love:
True hearts have eyes and ears, no tongues to speak;
They hear and see, and sigh, and then they break.

Sir Edward Dyer

Happy Reading

Etsy

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Friday Poetry: Alice Oswald

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend. I have had a lovely day which has included some quality reading.

My chosen poem today is by the poet Alice Oswald (1966). Oswald is an English poet who worked as a gardener before becoming a writer.

A Short Story of Falling

It is the story of the falling rain
to turn into a leaf and fall again. 

it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower

and every flower a tiny tributary
that from the ground flows green and momentary

is one of water's wishes and this tale
hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail

if only I a passerby could pass
as clear as water through a plume of grass

to find the sunlight hidden at the tip
turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip

then I might know like water how to balance
the weight of hope against the light of patience

water which is so raw so earthly-strong
and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along

drawn under gravity towards my tongue
to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song

which is the story of the falling rain
that rises to the light and falls again. 

Alice Oswald

Happy Reading

Etsy

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Friday Poetry: Rachel Field

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far.

My chosen poem this week is by author Rachel Field (1894-1942).

If Once You Have Slept on an Island

If once you have slept on an island
You'll never be quite the same;
You may look as you looked the day before
And go by the same old name.

You may bustle about in street and shop;
You may sit at home and sew,
But you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls
Wherever your feet may go. 

You may chat with the neighbours of this and that
And close to your fire keep,
But you'll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell
And tides beat through your sleep.

Oh, you won't know why, and you can't say how
Such change upon you came,
But once you have slept on an island,
You'll never be quite the same!

Rachel Field

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Paul Cookson

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I hope you all have some good plans for the weekend as well.

My chosen poem today is by a new poet for me Paul Cookson. Paul Cookson (1961) is a children’s writer who has been known to perform with a ukulele. I find this poem rather inspiring.

Let No One Steal Your Dreams 

Let no one steal your dreams
Let no one tear apart
The burning of ambition
That fires the drive inside your heart

Let no one steal your dreams 
Let no one tell you that you can't
Let no one hold you back
Let no one tell you that you won't

Set your sights and keep them fixed
Set your sights on high
Let no one steal your dreams
Your only limits is the sky

Let no one steal your dreams
Follow your heart
Follow your soul
For only when you follow them
Will you feel truly whole

Set your sights and keep them fixed
Set your sights on high
Let no one steal your dreams
You only limit is the sky. 

Paul Cookson

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Annette Wynne

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a good week and you all have exciting plans for the weekend. Sadly I will be working on Saturday and Sunday but I am looking forward to a free day on the Bank holiday Monday.

My chosen poem this week is inspired by all the wonderful blossom I have seen this week. I love this time of year.

May Snow

May is a blue and gold and green,
Not a trace of cloud is seen;
Yet I find along the way
Snowflakes falling all the day.

Dainty snowflakes fragrant white,
And there's not a cloud in sight,
Snow you cannot truly be—
You're just petals from the tree!

Annette Wynne

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Laurie Lee

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. My chosen poem this week is by the poet, documentary maker and prolific chronicler of his own early life Laurie Lee (1914-1997).

April Rise

If ever I saw blessing in the air
I see it now in this still early day
Where lemon-green the vaporous morning drips
Wet sunlight on the powder of my eye.

Blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round
Weeds of warm light whose every root and rod
Splutters with soapy green, and all the world
Sweats with the bead of summer in its bud.

If ever I heard blessing it is there
Where birds in trees that shoals and shadows are 
Splash with their hidden wings and drops of sound
Break on my ears their crests of throbbing air.

Pure in the haze the emerald sun dilates,
The lips of sparrows milk the mossy stones,
While white as water by the lake a girl
Swims her green hand among the gathered swans.

Now, as the almond burns its smoking wick,
Dropping small flames to light the candled grass;
Now, as my low blood scales its second chance,
If ever world were blessed, now it is.

Laurie Lee

Happy Reading

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Edwin Arnold

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has exciting plans for the Easter Weekend.

My chosen poem this week is by another new poet for me. Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) was born in Kent but spent most of life in India, where he worked as a schoolmaster. He became the editor of The Daily Telegraph on his return to England.

April

Blossom of the almond-trees,
April's gift to April's bees,
Birthday ornament of spring,
Flora's fairest daughterling! -
Coming when no flow'rets dare
Trust the cruel outer air;
When the royal king-cup bold
Will not don his coat of gold;
And the sturdy blackthorn spray
Keeps its silver for the May; -
Coming when no flow-rets would,
Save the lowly sisterhood
Early violets, blue and white,
Dying for their love of light.
Almond blossom, sent to teach us
That the spring-days soon will reach us,
Lest, with longing over-tried,
We die as the violets died.
Blossom, clouding all the tree
With thy crimson 'broidery,
Long before a leaf of green
On the bravest bough is seen;
Ah! when wintry winds are swinging
All thy red bells into ringing,
With a bee in every bell,
Almond bloom, we greet thee well! 

Edwin Arnold

Happy Reading

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Edith Nesbit

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a good week and has some fun plans for the weekend.

My chosen poem this week is by the poet and author Edith Nesbit (1858-1924).

Spring Song

All winter through I sat alone,
Doors barred and windows shuttered fast,
And listened to the wind's faint moan moan,
And ghostly mutterings of the past;
And in the pauses of the rain,
Mid whispers of dead sorrow and sin,
Love tapped upon the window pane:
I had no heart to let him in.

But now, with spring, my doors stand wide;
My windows let delight creep through;
I hear the skylark sing outside;
I see the crocus, golden new.
The pigeons on my window-sill,
Winging and wooing, flirt and flout,-
Now Love must enter if he will,
I have no heart to keep him out. 

Edith Nesbit

Happy Reading!

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Anon

Hello Eveyone!

Apologies for the lack of posting but this week has not been a good week. For this reason I am posting an old favourite to cheer myself up.

Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea, 
Silver buckles on his knee;
He'll come back and marry me,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe. 

Bobby Shaftoe's bright and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair,
He's my ain for evermair,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe's tall and slim,
Always dressed so neat and trim,
The ladies they all keek at him,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe. 

Bobby Shaftoe's getten a bairn
For to dandle in his arms;
In his arm and on his knee,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe. 

Anon

Happy Reading

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Anon

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has some fab plans for the weekend.

My chosen poem this week is one that my students sing and play regularly as it is a great beginner piece.

Lavender's Blue

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen;
Call up your men, dilly dilly, set them to work,
Some to the plough, dilly dilly, some to the cart;
Some to make hay, dilly dilly, some to thresh corn,
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly, keep ourselves warm. 

Anon

Happy Reading

Etsy